


Narcissism and Normality

by Vixenofthemist



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 2P Norway is different from the normal fanon, Beauty and the beast and Howls moving castle inspired au, F/M, More characters to be added when I put them in, NorBul is a rare ship so ofc I started shipping it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-11-21 21:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11365686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vixenofthemist/pseuds/Vixenofthemist
Summary: Yordana Ivanov adores her family more then anything else- Her brothers Vladimir and Andrei especially. After her step mother dies, Yordana becomes a normal housewife figure in the family, cooking, cleaning, and sorting through the rest of the family's crazy antics.When she gains an unwanted suitor, he feels threatened by her time spent with her family, especially Andrei, and makes it his mission to make fun of Andrei's love for stories of wizards and mysteries whenever he can. After the suitor goes to far, Andrei is determined to find out if the stories are true and prove him wrong- and he's dragging his older siblings and the mayor's sister along with him!First stop: Does a Wizard really live in the old mansion in the woods? And will Yordana find more then just the truth behind the stories inside the mansions walls?





	1. Normality

Family meant everything to Yordana Ivanov, her father and two siblings especially meant the world to her. Her father was a hard-working inventor, always thinking of and sketching invention ideas to benefit his family. He was a genius ahead of their time, Yordana believed that whole heartedly, and would tell anyone who thought otherwise. Her two brothers were the children of her late step mother Dacia, and their company brought so much joy to the cluttered house. Vladimir was technically her step brother, being her same age and born from Dacia’s first marriage, but he felt no less her brother then her half sibling Andrei did.  
Vladimir was… unusual, Yordana will admit. He was obsessed with the unknown and magic, and often went on travels in his teenage years to find creatures and people who could use magic. This had made him rather taboo talk in some circles of their village, as it was believed that just talking about someone who searched for dark magic would bring it into the village. His looks also made the same people whisper that his birth father was an undead blood drinker, and a rumor often went around the village that he wasn’t looking for magical creatures when he went on his trips, but was looking for victims to drink their blood.

If that was what he actually was doing, looking for fresh blood, Yordana had no idea nor a desire to know. But she did know, that Vladimir was a joy to be around. He delighted in making people laugh, and at parties he often gathered people around and did sleight of hand card tricks to entertain. He charmed the women with his smile and laugh, and brought laughter to the men’s conversation. Kids especially adored him, and would gather round him when he walked through the streets, begging to see a trick or hear a story. The older he got the less the dark rumors about him were spread, though occasionally they would still creep about. He’s still considered a strange person, but a well off one. Whoever his birth father had been, he’d left Vlad with a fortune and a trade company that was doing incredibly well. All the trade the village did was through Vlad’s company, and when he came of age to inherit it fully, women came out of the woodworks to try and get in his....

Well, they wanted to leave a good impression on him.

A day didn’t go by without a knock at the door sounding and some fresh faced, fluttering eyed women would try and pretend to be there to see Yordana, when really they aimed to get to Vlad through his sister. Yordana could see clearly what they wanted however, and would always lie about Vlad not being home and see whether they wanted to have tea afterwards or not. If they did, Yordana would invite them in and have a conversation. And if they seemed nice, Yordana would tell Vlad about them later. But if they didn’t, Yordana simply wouldn’t mention them.

She rarely talked about anyone to Vlad.

Cause out of her whole family, Yordana was the normal one. There wasn’t anything unique about her; she did chores and cooked and cleaned, she was polite and nodded when talked to and let whoever talking talk about themselves. She didn’t have hair brained ideas for inventions, she wasn’t in charge of a well-off trading business and obsessed with the supernatural like Vlad, nor was she as adventurous as little 5-year-old Andrei was. She was just Yordana. Daughter to the crazy inventor and sister to Vladimir. Nothing else. Hardly anyone wanted to talk to her unless it was about her father or Vlad.

Yordana had despaired over this for years as a teen, she wanted desperately to be known for something crazy like the rest of her family, but everything she tried didn’t work.  
She tried spreading rumors that she was a witch, which she did by setting up candles and some, what she assumed where witchy things, on a tree stump by the main road and mumbling nonsense and pretending they were magic words. It had caused quite a stir, but most people just got concerned for her health, and her father ruined any chance it had of becoming a good rumor by finding her doing it one day and saying loudly that she should stop playing and come in to eat. It had just been Yordana’s luck to that the Bourgeoisie had been the ones passing by and heard her father call it playing, because they were the most gossipy family in town and it quickly spread that Yordana was faking it. They also pinned it down to having Dacia as a step mother, who they believed was a retired witch, and decided that Yordana needed to spend time with people outside of her own house. Their attempt at helping Yordana get out of the house had only made her want to leave it less. As a shy girl, it had been devastating to have kids knocking on the door asking to play with her every day of the summer. It was made even worse that none of the kids really wanted to play with her, and were only being forced to by their parents, who had been in turn told to do so by the Bourgeoisies.

It was a nice attempt, and Yordana know appreciated the concern, but 12-year-old Yordana really could have done without it.

All her other attempts failed too, and by the age of 15 Yordana had quite trying. People just couldn’t believe she was unusual.

Especially the older people in the village, they all adored her. Dacia had made her and Vlad both volunteer to visit the elderly in the village since before she was Yordana’s mother at 9, and all the elderly people simply loved them both. For once, they liked Yordana more than Vlad, though only by a little. They had all lived long lives, and most of them had no one around to tell about the lives they had had, and Yordana was an exceptional listener. She sits for an hour each weekend, listening to the elders talk about whatever they wanted while she knit or sowed. Mrs. Balakov had been Yordana’s favorite, she loved to tell Yordana about how she met her deceased husband, she had traveled the world trying to find her true love, and after failing over and over she had almost given up, when she accidently ran into her husband. They were some of the most interesting stories Yordana had ever heard and she eagerly had looked forward to listening. Sadly, a year ago Mrs. Balakov passed.

Yordana stopped visiting the elderly a couple months ago, her hands had become too full with taking care of the house. Her father was on an invention streak, and he often forgot to take care of himself and whatever was around him, which did include Andrei. Yordana know took care of him fully when their father was in one of these crazes, she got him dressed in the morning, gave him breakfast lunch dinner, and then got him ready for bed at night. Vlad helped when he was home, but he was getting busier and busier with his business that he was often too tired to help. Yordana didn’t mind, it was her job she supposed. After Dacia passed, it had fallen to Yordana to clean, cook, and shop. Every morning she went out into the market and went into her routine shops: The baker, the butcher, and the traders. And if she did it quick enough, she’d stop at the bookshop and pick up a book for Andrei and one for her. People would occasionally stop her to just ask how Vlad or her father were doing, and she would give a nice and simple “he is doing good, thank you for asking!” and then be on her way.

Sometimes it’s difficult, not being a person people are interested in, but she endears it because it’s for her family. And family is more important to her then everyone else.

 

\--  
There was… ONE person who always talked to Yordana, but she’d rather not think about him. He wasn’t exactly pleasant conversation, or at least it wasn’t to Yordana.

His name was Conrad Balakov, and he first moved into the village to attend his grandmother, Mrs. Balakov’s, funeral. Apparently, Mrs. Balakov had written to the family about Yordana, and he had become smitten with Yordana through those letters. The day after the funeral, he had knocked on their door and asked to talk to Yordana, and after they sat in the parlor for only maybe 10 minutes, he kneeled and asked for her to marry him. Yordana had recoiled away from him in shock, and perhaps he remembered then that this was their first-time meeting, and that was improper of him to do.

“Ah, apologies Ms. Yordana! I was just so overwhelmed by the joy of finally meeting you that I couldn’t stop myself! Please, spare a thought to what I asked, after we’ve known each other awhile more.”

Yordana had just numbly nodded and asked if he wanted more biscuits, anything to distract from what had just happened. After another 20 minutes of him probing her for details about herself that she didn’t want to share, he still seemed to not want to leave and dodged all Yordana’s hints that he should go. It wasn’t until her father came in from the workshop that Yordana was able to usher him out the door. She had hoped that would be the last of him, but alas it wasn’t. He’d inherited Mrs. Balakov’s house and had settled into it quickly and seemed to have all the plans to stay.

This wouldn’t be so bad, if he didn’t want to keep his word of letting Yordana and him get to know each other. Every moment he saw Yordana, was a moment closer to their inevitable marriage in his eyes. And he never talked about himself, which some girls Yordana knew would be the dream, except he only asked Yordana uncomfortable questions about herself that almost always insinuated at them getting married.

“Ms. Yordana, do you want to have 5, or 7 children?”  
“Ms. Yordana, should we- I mean, would you like get married at the chapel on the hill or the quaint one at the edge of town?”  
“Yordana, do you like any men in this town?” And on and on went those types of questions. Yordana was finding it harder and harder to come up with excuses to not answer them correctly. After only a week he seemed to deem it appropriate to just call her by her first name even though she had given him no indication that he could, which made her even more uncomfortable around him. He kept acting like they had known each other for years, when they’d only known each other for a few months at best. Yordana had gained an eye for avoiding him, which was made easier by his tall stature and red hair in a sea of black and brown hair.

Though his cursed height often meant he saw her, which lead to him pushing and shoving past anybody to talk to her, he even forced his way into a conversation she and Vladimir were having at a party!  
Though, that hadn’t ended well for him. Vladimir had stayed close enough to hear what he was saying to her, and intervened almost immediately. Vlad was furious at how tactless and personal those questions were, and made it quite clear to Conrad that he was not in his nor their fathers good graces. Conrad didn’t seem to care, and went off with the same amount of confidence that he had when he left. The next day he swaggered up to Yordana in the market as if nothing had happened the night before.

None of that is what set Yordana off from him though, what had really made her decide she could never marry him, was how he treated Andrei.

Andrei could never say a word around Conrad without him dismissing what he said or outright ignoring him. If Andrei was with Yordana when Conrad hunted her down, then Conrad would do the most horrid of things in Yordana’s eyes: He talked over Andrei.  
Andrei’s sweet, innocent voice talking was lost under Conrad’s loud bravado. The despair that filled Andrei’s eyes whenever he saw Conrad made Yordana’s heart break.

That was the brink of it, but the breaking point was far worse.  
\--  
It was the seasonal fall harvest festival, and Andrei was overflowing with excitement, this was the festival that was tailored to make both kids and adults happy. There were games for the kids and their parents, and food for everyone. In one of the big barns on the edge of the village was where they had set up a band and dancing took place, with the food and games right outside in the cleared pastures. Yordana sat in the carriage with the food they were bringing, while Andrei bounced in the front with Vlad, who was leading the horses. When they arrived at barn, kids of all ages were already whooping and cheering as they played tag or threw bags filled with beans at roughly cut out holes in carpenter board. Yordana couldn’t help but smile, seeing kids have genuine fun always brought a smile to her face.

Andrei jumped off the moment the open carriage stopped, running and shouting towards his friends that he was here as they cheered for him to join them.

“Well, at least we know he’ll have fun tonight!” Vladimir remarked as he helped Yordana down from the carriage and then climbed up to hand her down the food. Yordana nodded, looking over at Andrei already involved in a game as they walked towards the barn.

“I’m glad, I’ve been worried about him lately. He’s taken to waiting outside father’s workshop you know, wanting to play only with father. He won’t even play with Ileana anymore, and you know how much he loves playing fetch with her and wrestling! Hopefully, playing with his friends tonight will do him some good and bring some of his love to play back.”  
Vlad nodded, stepping out of the way of people as they neared closer to the opening of the barn.

“I hope so to. In the meantime, WE have to survive talking to Mayor Braginsky. Let’s hope he doesn’t want to chat, I think I’ll puke if I have to look at his face for too long.”

Yordana’s elbow found Vladimir’s ribs as her response, a silent gesture to indicate that what he said was rude. They were waiting in line now to go in, and Mayor Braginsky was greeting people as they entered, shaking hands and making small talk. Vladimir had just taken off his gloves, saw Mayor Braginsky was shaking hands, and put them back on. Yordana rolled her eyes as she shifted the food plate in her arms to a more comfortable position and focused on the mayo. Ivan Braginsky was a tall man, with seemingly kind smile on his face. Vlad swore up and down that the smile was fake, though Yordana never saw what made him say that.  
Besides the mayor, Yordana noticed a woman standing next to him, she had long blonde hair that fell to her waist and piercing eyes. She placed her hand on the mayor’s arm and he leaned down to listen to her as she whispered in his ear, he gave a nod, and she scanned the line with her eyes. Yordana had never seen the women before.

“Who do you think she is?” Yordana whispered to Vlad. Vlad had been watching Andrei playing, and missed the women, as she had walked away into the crowd by the time he looked.

“What women? The one with the almost mustache?” Yordana elbowed him in the ribs again, as he had been referring to an older women further up the line that he very much knew.

“Of course not! That’s rude Vlad, for goodness sakes never mind. You missed her anyway.” Vlad, didn’t seem to care to much that he’d missed the women.

It was soon their turn to talk to Mayor Braginsky, and as was tradition Vlad went first.

The Mayor gave him a big smile, finished putting on a glove, and outstretched his hand to Vlad, Vlad took it gingerly.

“Mayor Braginsky, I see you’re in good health, how… fortunate.” Vlad might as well have been talking through clenched teeth. Yordana tried her best to look anywhere but the scene in front of her, the last thing she needed was to be associated with her brother getting involved in a fight with the mayor.  
“Jahaha, you’ve always had a strange sense of humor Vladimir Popescu! You must have gotten it from your father, since none of your siblings share it. Ah, pardon me, step and half siblings don't share it.”

Vlad let go of his hand and grinned at him. “We all get something from our fathers, I got mines humor, and you got your dad’s looks. Tell me, I’ve heard you got sisters, do they look like your father as well?” And then Vlad was gone into the crowd, leaving the smile plastered on Braginsky’s face.

Yordana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. That cheekiness was going to be the end of him one day, she knew it. Opening her eyes, Yordana let out her breath and stepped forward and politely curtsied.

“Hello Mayor Braginsky… I, I would apologize for what my brother said, but I feel as if it would mean nothing.”

The mayor bowed slightly in return to Yordana, lifting his hand and waving it in the air as he straightened.

“You’re right not to apologize Yordana, you’ve done nothing wrong. I hope the rest of your family is well?” He turned slightly and gestured for someone to come forward, and a server came and took the food off Yordana’s hands.

With the lack of something to hold, Yordana grew unsure of how to hold her hands and just clasped them in front of her skirts.

“We are all well indeed, thank you for asking. father I am afraid, was not able to make it tonight due to working on an invention. He does send his well wishes towards a bountiful harvest, and towards your families’ health.” Braginsky smiled with his eyes down at Yordana.

“Thank you, I send my wishes to him as well. Please enjoy the festival Yordana, and keep your brother in line if possibly.”

Yordana nodded, “I’ll try my best.” And then she walked off to go find Vlad and tell him off.

\--

People where dancing in the middle of the barn, and Yordana really wasn't surprised to see Vladimir dancing with one of the girls who often came knocking at their door. She was one of the nice ones, who Yordana could accept as a sister in law, so she didn’t interrupt their dancing.  
Instead, she aimlessly started walking around the barn, talking to this person or that person, but no one talked to her for very long. The aimless wondering changed as Conrad soon strode through the barn doors, head already swiveling to spot Yordana. She immediately ducked behind a hay stack, startling a young couple who were hiding behind there for a much different reason. Her cheeks reddened, and she quickly squeaked out an apology and sprung out- and right into Conrad.

‘Oh no’ was the only thought that went through her head as Conrad smiled brightly at her, his hand grabbing her arm.  
“Yordana! I’m so glad you found me, I was really hoping to run into you tonight!”

Yordana could only awkwardly laugh as she pulled her arm away from her, taking as big of a step back as she could without looking rude.

“Really? W-why is that?”

He was smiling, too big of a smile for Yordana’s comfort.

“Well, it’s very exciting news, so I’ll tell you later on in the night! I’m sure you’ll love what I have to say!” He chuckled with confidence, and Yordana giggled nervously, casting her eyes about for Vlad or anyone really to use as an excuse to leave Conrad’s side.

But it was just her luck that no one was nearby. Curses.

Without a good reason to leave, Yordana was stuck listening to Conrad ramble on about how excited she’ll be for this news he had for twenty minutes. The entire time Yordana gave minimal but polite answers, and tried not to look rude as she scanned the crowd with her eyes for an escape, but the closest thing she got was a drink from a passing waiter.

Finally, what she hoped would be her escape came in the form of Andrei bouncing along towards her through the crowd, and even more thankfully Vlad saw him and was starting to make his way after Andrei.

“Dana Dana Dana! You won’t believe what I just heard!” Andrei flew into her legs and wrapped his arms around them with high excitement, his eyes twinkling with exuberance. Yordana beamed down at him while Conrad scowled, clearly upset that Andrei had interrupted.

“I don’t know about that, Vlad’s told me some unbelievable things, so the bar is pretty high!” Yordana teased as she ruffled his hair. Andrei giggled and reached his hands up and caught her arm, hanging off of it with a broad smile.

“Well, this is going to be more unbelievable then anything Vlad’s ever told you!!”

“Oh really? Well tell me quickly then!”

Andrei pulled her down closer to his height, and cast a suspicious look towards Conrad.

“I don’t want to tell you in front of him, he’ll just make fun of me for it, like he did when I told you about the lady living near the lake.”

Yordana straightened herself up and looked at Conrad with surprise.

“You made fun of him?”

Conrad cast a disbelieving look at her, gesturing towards Andrei as he spoke.

“I didn’t make fun of him! I just told him that since he’s a little kid he believes stupid things and shouldn’t waste adults time with them!”

Yordana stared at him, shocked that he would treat a child like that. Vlad, who had been standing off a little to the side, finally said something. He took a step forward and stood in front of Yordana and Andrei.

“You had no right to say that. You have absolutely no reason to even be near Andrei and for you to think you can tell him the stories he hears are stupid is just invasive of you!” Yordana nodded behind Vlad, and she pulled Andrei closer to her in an attempt to block him from Conrad.

Puffing out his chest, Conrad scoffed and started to say something about the only ever was around Andrei because Andrei refused to leave Yordana alone and let her be an adult. Yordana ignored him, and pulled Andrei away and tried to distract him as Vladimir and Conrad continued the argument.  
Kneeling down to his level, Yordana gently took his hands in one of her own and smiled encouragingly at him. He’s excitement had been extinguished, and he had a distressed look in his eye. He started talking rabidly before Yordana could speak.

“Do I really get in the way of you being an adult?! I don’t mean to! I just like telling you things and- and no one besides Vlad and you like to listen to all the stories I hear- and papa doesn’t come out and talk to me anymore and Vlad’s gone a lot so you’re the only one who will listen to me and I’m really sorry I make people think you’re not an adult!”

He was crying. Yordana’s heart broke as he wiped his eyes, he sounded absolutely distressed.  
She squeezed his hands and smoothed some of his hair behind his ear as she tried to comfort him.

“I love listening to your stories Andrei! I don’t care if some people think it stops me from being an adult, nothing makes me happier then to listen to you!” She dabbed at his tears with her handkerchief, and he smiled a watery smile at her.

“Do you really like listening to me?” His voice was bashful, but he looked happier. Yordana pinched one of his cheeks affectionately.

“I really, really do.”  
He finished drying his eyes with her handkerchief and gave it back to her, she tucked it into one of her dress pockets and smiled at him.

“You know, you never told me the new story you heard, the one that I wouldn’t believe. Do you think you could tell it to me?” He beamed and enthusiastically nodded. Yordana clapped her hands together in excitement. “Great! Oh I can’t wait!”

She snuck a look over Andrei’s shoulder at Vladimir and Conrad, they were still arguing.  
Yordana brought her attention back to Andrei as he rubbed his hands together excitedly.

“Ok, so you know that mansion in the woods? The really old one that’s been abandoned for years?” Yordana nodded. “Well I heard that it’s not abandoned, but that it just looks that way because the owner doesn’t want anyone near it!”

Was Conrad getting closer? No, it must be Yordana’s imagination, she should focus on Andrei and less on the men.

“Why would the owner want to hide? Who is the owner?” Yordana knew the right questions to ask to get Andrei more excited. He was almost bouncing up and down again.

“A wizard! And he hides his mansion with a spell to make it look abandoned, to make finding him harder. But!” Andrei paused for dramatic effect, something he learned from Vlad.  
“Legend says that if you do find him, he’ll be impressed by you and will give you a gift!”  
Yordana grew her eyes wide, just enough to convince Andrei she was shocked. Truth was, she had heard this legend from Vlad when they were children, but Andrei didn’t need to know that.

“What sort of gift?” Yordana asked in a hushed whisper. Andrei leaned in closer and whispered very loudly,

“Anything you want!”

Yordana was halfway through voicing her surprise, when a sharp and mockingly laugh cut across her. Looking up, her face set into a scowl as she saw Conrad laughing above them, Vladimir looking disgusted behind him. She stood up and put her hands on her hips.

“What do you want?”

He put his hands up and put on what he said was his winning smile, though Yordana thought it looked more like the smile of someone who was making an obnoxious joke.

“Oh, come one Yordana, you have to admit that that what he just said is hilarious! I’ve rode past that mansion, and its falling apart and doesn’t have half its walls! Even if wizards were real, surely they would take up better residents then in some vine covered shamble!” He looked Andrei in the face, and his lip curled upward in a sneer. “Besides, none of this kid’s stories are real! The Lady living Near the Lake, the Snow Women in the Mountain, and know this Wizard in the Mansion, all just tales made up by kids to get adults unneeded attention!”

Neither Yordana nor Vlad had time to argue with Conrad before Andrei went bolting out the door, Yordana took a couple quick steps after him, shouting his name and bringing quite a few people’s attention to her. Andrei wasn’t listening to her, and he ran out the door and into the barnyard. Yordana heard Vlad start to say something to Conrad, but she had had enough.

She whirled around and marched back towards Conrad.

She hated him.

First the rushed and awkward proposal, then the constant forcing of conversation and evasion of her privacy, and now he had made Andrei cry not once! But twice, and who knows how many other times!

Conrad noticed, her approaching before Vlad, and he lifted his arms up as if he was expecting her to rush into his arms. “Ah, Yordana, decided to give up chasing the brat-” He didn’t get to finish. As Yordana reached him, she grabbed the nearest drink and hurled it into his face.

Red wine dripped down his face and covered his suit, his expression was a mixture of surprise and anger.

“How dare you! First you think that you can just waltz into my life and expect me to know who you are even though your grandmother never mentioned you to me. Not even once! And then you have the nerve to immediately proposed to me even though I had only met you the day before! Second, you pester me day in and day out, forcing yourself into conversations I’m having and being rude and insensitive to how I might be feeling. And third! You dare insult my younger brother simply for being a child! Mocking and scorning him purely because he takes up my time that you think belongs to you! Well I have news for you!” Yordana jabbed her finger into his chest. “I hate you. I will never marry you, nor will I let YOU take up anymore of my time that I should be spending with my little brother, who I love more than I could ever love you!” And then she turned back around and strode towards the opening of the barn.

Relief entered into her infuriated mind as she saw the ends of Vlad’s coat tails whip around the entrance, meaning that he was already out looking for Andrei. Yordana lifted her skirts and ran after him. Not noticing that she was leaving a very quiet barn behind.

\--  
Andrei hadn’t gotten far, he had made it to the edge of the barnyard before a blonde woman stopped him. She was now talking to him, a firm hand on his shoulder to keep him from running into the dark woods beyond the yard. Vladimir reached the woman first, and was already talking to her by the time Yordana caught up.

“Andrei you can’t go into the woods, they’re too dangerous for a kid to go into alone!” Vlad was saying as Yordana stopped running besides him, her face flushed and breathing heavy.

Andrei just stomped his foot and looked away from all of them. The blonde woman spoke, her voice sounded annoyed.

“I already tried telling him that, but he’s being stubborn.” She let go of Andrei’s shoulder, and Yordana quickly took hold of it instead. The blonde raised her eyebrow and stared critically at them both. “Why does he want to go into the woods in the first place? Surely you’ve told him he’s too young to go into it at night?” Yordana nodded quickly, something about this woman made Yordana think she’d seen her before, but she couldn’t quite remember where.

“We have told him. I have no idea why he wants to go into the woods!” After speaking, Yordana realized how upsetting this must be for Andrei, to have them all talking about him as if he’s not here. Vlad must have realized to, as they both dropped to Andrei’s level to talk to him. The blonde raised both her eyebrows at this, but to Yordana’s surprise, she leaned down enough to look Andrei in the face, though she didn’t go as low as Yordana or Vlad.

“Andrei, why do you want to go into the woods?” Yordana asked gently, moving her hand from his shoulder to squeeze his hand. He shook his head.

“I already told the lady.”

Vladimir stood up and looked at the woman, who straightened up as well. Yordana stayed down at Andrei’s height, instead looking up at the both of them.

“He told me something about wanting to go to some mansion, but that’s all he said.” The blonde said before Vlad could ask, and realization of what Andrei wanted to do popped into Yordana’s brain. She turned and looked into his eyes as Vlad continued to talk to the blonde, and she leaned close and asked softly,

“Don’t let what Conrad say get to you, he’s nothing but a bully. Just because he doesn’t believe the stories are real, doesn’t mean you have to believe they aren’t real. Everyone’s their own person for a reason, so they can think for themselves and believe what they want, not what others do.”

Andrei bit his lip.

“I know, but… I just gotta see for myself if they’re real! Everyone always thinks we are weird because we talk about these stories and believe them, I want to see for myself if me believing in the stories is worth it. Isn’t that why Vlad went on all those journey’s when he was a kid, to see if the stories he heard where real?”

Yordana didn’t know what to say, so she looked up at Vlad. He coughed awkwardly.  
“Yes, I did do that when I was younger, I wasn’t a kid though, and it can be very dangerous looking into these things Andrei. Neither me nor Yordana want you getting hurt just because some guy obsessed with Yordana said the stories were silly!” That struck a chord with Yordana. Andrei was like this because of her in a way.

An idea seemed to strike Andrei, and he looked up at all of them, even the blonde, with hope in his eyes.

“You could come with me!” Yordana’s eyes widen in shock. She hadn’t even thought of that, and looking up at Vlad it was clear he hadn’t either. It was a very good idea on Andrei’s part, and truthfully, they didn’t have a good reason to reject it. Them coming would mean he wouldn’t be alone so he would be safe, and Andrei could see for himself whether the story was real. But Yordana still wasn’t sure.

“I don’t know Andrei…” Yordana started, then stopped. Why was she not sure? There was no reason for her not to be, she knew for a fact that Vlad had done something similar to this before, and would know what to do in case they got into trouble. So why was she still hesitant?

Andrei looked at her with puppy dog eyes. “Why not? Don’t you want to find out if the stories are true?!”

“Of cour-” No, that was her exact problem. She didn’t want to see if it was real. She liked believing without knowing, it made life for her more fun not knowing if they were real. The allure and fantasy of stories goes away once you find the truth, just like rereading a book is never the same as the first time you read it- you already know what happens, so the mystery and allure go away.

But this wasn’t a book Yordana realized as Andrei stared hopefully into her eyes. This was something that could affect the very world she lived in if it was true- and in that case, wouldn’t knowing be better than not knowing? If she never went and found out herself, wouldn’t it make Conrad right in saying they were only silly stories with no truth behind them? Yordana didn’t know, but she did know that she didn’t want Conrad to ever be right.  
Maybe it was the little bit of anger towards Conrad that was still lingering in her that connected these dots and convinced her it was a good idea. Yordana wasn’t sure, but she felt bold today, so she might as well do something bold.

“… Actually, why not.”

Vlad sputtered, looking at her with wide eyes.

“What?!”

Yordana shrugged. “Why can’t we go? We’ll be with Andrei in case something happens, and we can all see for ourselves whether the story is true or not.  
Andrei leaped for joy and threw himself into Yordana’s arms.

“Thank you! I knew you’d side with me Yordana!”

Yordana let out a laugh, mostly at the very dramatic look of disbelief Vlad had on his face. The blonde was looking at Andrei with her head tilted slightly to the side, thinking.

“But- But we can’t go!” Vlad said. Andrei let go of Yordana and turned to face Vlad with his hands on his hips.

“Why not?!”

“Because!” Vlad started, putting his own hands on his hips and putting a heavy emphasis on S and E. “The mansion in the story is on the mayors’ property!”

Yordana chewed her lip, she hadn’t thought of that. Andrei seemed to deflate.

“Oh… So, we can’t go unless the mayor says we can, right?” Vlad nodded, seemingly confident he had found his way to negate them from going to the mansion. Suddenly, the blonde woman spoke up.

“Actually, you don’t need permission directly from the mayor, as long as someone in his family accompanies you to the property.”

Vlad whirled around to face her, disbelief on his face again.

“How do you know that?!” Vlad asked at the same time that Andrei asked,

“Where can we find a member of his family??”

Before she answered either of them, she gave them all another once over, as if deciding whether she could trust them with what she knew. As she did so, it struck Yordana where she had seen her.

“You were the lady talking to the mayor when we were in line!” Yordana couldn’t stop herself from blurting that out, it was a terrible habit of hers really.

The blonde looked at Yordana with a mix of surprise and suspicion. Her eyebrows were raised very high, but they went back down into a scowl as she spoke.

“Yes, that was me. I’m surprised you remembered, I tried to make my time there in front of people as brief as possible. I had to do it though, my brother doesn't take care of himself when he's greeting people, standing there for who knows how long with out drink isn't good, I had to make sure he was doing fine.”  
The revelation of what she said took a moment to settle in, but when it did Yordana and Andrei had a much different reaction to Vlad.

Yordana let out an “oh you’re his sister” while Andrei bounced with excitement that she could take them to the mansion.

Vladimir however, seemed to have a very visceral reaction to the news. He staggered a full step backwards while exclaiming loudly, “YOU’RE THE MAYOR’S SISTER?!” He seemed in utter dismay, and Yordana supposed the blonde was not what he had been expecting Ivan’s sister to look like.

“Yes, I am his sister. And my name is Natalia, so don’t just call me his sister.” Natalia’s eyes were narrowed fiercely at Vlad, and Yordana couldn’t blame her, it had been a weird reaction.

Andrei didn’t seem much interested in Vlad’s weird reaction, instead he ignored it completely and bounced up to Natalia with a hopeful gleam.

“Since you brought it up, does that mean you’ll take us to the mansion?!”

Natalia refocused her attention to Andrei, and ignored Vlad, who still had his mouth agape, staring at her. Oh, Yordana knew why he was acting like that. He must be remembering all the times he had insinuated to the mayor that his sisters where ugly despite Vlad himself never meeting them. He must be rethinking his entire view on the Braginsky family.

“Yes, I will take you-” That’s all Andrei needed to hear for him to jump for joy, yelling with enthusiasm. Natalia raised her voice to be heard above Andrei. “However, I will only do so if you promise to follow some rules.”

Yordana put a hand on Andrei’s shoulder to calm him down, and Vlad finally closed his mouth, they were all listening to her know. She raised one finger up as she laid down the first rule.

“One, just because I am letting you on the property does not mean you can do whatever you please while on it, that means no throwing things into the property, no defacing the property, and no being a general nuisance.”

After Yordana and Vlad had nodded, Natalia raised another finger and continued.

“Second, just because I am letting you onto the property does not mean you can go onto this property or any other of mayor Braginsky’s property without permission. That means no exploring the mansion again without permission.” She looked pointedly at Andrei, but he just beamed at her.

“I’ll just ask you to come with me then, if I ever need to go to any of his properties!” Andrei said, rocking on the balls of his feet. Natalia opened her mouth to respond, couldn’t think of anything since he would technically be following the rules if he got her to come with him, so she just continued and raised her third finger.

“Third… don’t tell my brother I let you onto his property.” That caught Yordana by surprise, but as she thought about it she realized how it made sense. Their family wasn’t exactly the mayor’s favorite to begin with, and if the mayor found out that Natalia had let one of the people he hated the most- Vladimir- onto his property with one of the most iconic landmarks of their town, it probably wouldn’t work out in Natalia’s favor. She was taking a risk letting them onto the property, and they would have to be careful she didn’t get in trouble for it.

“Are you all clear on the rules?” Natalia asked sharply, and after they all nodded, she said. “Good.” And turned around and marched into the woods. Andrei immediately started running after her, with Yordana and Vladimir following more slowly. Vlad was still acting weird, but Yordana couldn’t stop herself from whispering to him

“You know, I think if you squint hard enough you could see her with the enormous beard her father always had. I think what you said to the mayor earlier is quite accurate.”

Vlad scowled at her. “Oh don’t rub it in Dana, I’m already kicking myself for insulting her like that…”

Yordana smiled good naturedly at him and nudged him in the ribs.

“I’m only joking! But please try and start acting normal for Andrei, he’s super excited and will want to talk to you about this the closer we get, so please at least act normal when he does.” Vlad mumbled that he was already planning on it, and Yordana nodded and sped up to join Natalia, who was getting interrogated on what it was like being the mayors sister by Andrei. Yordana smiled at that, he was back to his curious self at last.

And as they walked closer and closer to the mansion, Yordana couldn’t shake the feeling that something… something was about to happen. Whether it was good or bad, she couldn’t tell, but she felt ready for it.


	2. Normality meets Magic

She was not ready. There was no way for her to have prepared herself for the whirlwind that she went through that night.

 

\--

 

The track through the forest had been fairly normal, Vlad got over the shock of Natalia being mayor Braginsky’s little sister and returned back to his usual self and now seemed to take it upon himself to inform her exactly on the story they were going to investigate. It turned out Vlad also knew a little more than Andrei did, as he had researched this story back in his teenage years when he had the time.

 

Apparently, years ago, a powerful wizard scared off the rich family that lived in the now decrepit mansion, and he set up hundreds of magical defenses to keep people from making their way into his house. The reason why he did so was never found, and the family who got run out were ashamed and did everything in their power to cover up what had happened to them. In all his intensive research, Vlad couldn't find who the family was, or if they even still lived in the town.

 

Natalia and Andrei weren't the most interested in this, but Yordana found it highly intriguing. She wanted to ask more about this family, but Natalia asked more about the wizard and Vlad immediately focused on filling Natalia in as much as he could about the wizard.

 

“Well, there's evidence about him existing scattered over the past hundred years, so he's really old! The first story is the one where he forces the family out, but they claim they moved out on their own freewill and covered up anything happening.

The next story is a couple years later, where a kid disappeared for a few days and his parents were stricken and willing to do anything. The Mom went to the mansion since she'd heard rumors, and begged for her son to be found, and the next day, the son appeared in their doorstep wrapped in an unknown blanket and sleeping soundly with his cuts bandaged. Nothing happens for  twenty or thirty so years, then a women goes missing and no one knows what happened to her, and people started claiming the wizard took her. So the man she was supposed to marry went and banged on the wizards door and demanded his fiancé back. The wizard snaps his fingers and the woman is there, and she left with no memory of what happened to her. The most recent one that happened maybe twenty years ago, was a group of kids claimed they met the wizard, and that he granted them a wish for getting past all his defenses and traps. That's what started the rumor that if you meet the wizard, he’ll grant you a wish!”

 

Vlad talked some more after that, but Yordana stopped listening halfway through, she had heard this part before from both Vlad and Andrei.

 

Instead her mind started to wonder to just what the wizard would be like if they did meet him. She figured he must be old, all wizards were old, weren’t they? She couldn’t remember a single story she had ever heard where the wizard didn’t have a long beard to rival Natalia’s fathers, so yes she decided, he was probably old. Would he have gone crazy in his old age though? A lot of stories Vlad told her always had crazy wizards. Especially if they were old. But Yordana didn’t think so, she had talked and met many an old person, and only one of them had gone crazy in their old age, so she was sure the Wizard would still be quite ahold of his mind. But would he be nice? Yordana wasn’t sure. According to the story of the Wizard in the Mansion, if you did meet him he would grant you a wish, so she supposed that meant he had to be nice in some way, right?

 

She was brought back into Vlad and Natalia’s conversation as Vlad let out a laugh, while Natalia was sending him a look of annoyance.

 

“You’re making that part up. You’ve never been to Galesbury, and you most certainly weren’t pranked by a ghost while you were there. I refuse to believe you.” Ah, it seemed Vlad had started telling stories of his time in Galesbury, Yordana guessed he must have finished telling Natalia about the wizard and she probably asked him how he knew it so well, which lead to Vlad’s hobby.

 

Vlad put a hand on his heart.

  
“You wound me Natalia! I merely sought to tell you a true story from my life, one of my favorite and most loved stories of my own personal adventure, and what do you do in return but do the worst and say you don’t believe me!” Natalia rolled her eyes.

 

“I greatly doubt I’ve wounded you too much, if you can still be dramatic then I doubt I did much- if any- damage at all.”

 

“Oh, but you are greatly mistaken! I have been cut down to my very core, truly I have! To have someone doubt a tale from my life is one of the most horrid things anyone can do, and you went and did it so easily!” Vlad looked away from her as if looking at her brought him pain, though it was ruined by the grin on his face.

 

Before Natalia could retaliate, Andrei tugged politely on her skirt.

 

“Excuse me, Miss Natalia, but how much further until we get to the mansion?”

 

Natalia brought her attention back to their surroundings, and pointed at a faint faraway outline.

 

“That’s the mansion over there, the barn the festival was at is diagonally straight across from it if you head north-west.”

 

An air of excitement filled Yordana, she didn’t know why, but she felt rather giddy. She almost wanted to join Andrei in his excited jumping up and down, but refrained since that was not normal for an adult to do.

 

“Ahh I can’t wait! Come on, let’s hurry!” Andrei shouted, and then took off running through the woods.

 

The three adults took off after him.

 

“ANDREI SLOW DOWN!” Vlad shouted at Andrei’s much faster shape.

 

“DON’T GO TO FAR AHEAD!” Yordana shouted, a branch snagging at her sleeve and scratching her arm.

 

Andrei didn't slow down, instead he just shouted at them to keep up.

 

Natalia didn’t say anything, but Yordana thought she heard a couple swear sounding words coming from Natalia’s direction.

 

\---

 

The mansion was… in shambles. It was a huge mansion, made of finely sanded stone and was covered in green vines and moss, and where the front door and windows had been was instead stones from where the upper part had collapsed and crumbled.

 

Andrei looked up at it in disappointment.

 

“This is the mansion people talk about?”

He asked Vlad, who nodded.

 

“Yep, this is it.”

 

Andrei looked back.

 

“Oh. I thought it would be… cooler.”

 

Yordana caught her breathe, finally, running was not her favorite thing nor a strong point.

 

“It's supposed to look like this, isn't it? To keep people from suspecting the Wizard lives in it?”

 

Andrei light up at that.

 

“You’re right! We just have to find a way in! Let's look around!”

 

And off Andrei went, scrambling up towards the mansion with the other three close behind him.

 

Almost an hour later and they had found nothing. No sign of a magic or anything being concealed by or around the wall. Inside was to dangerous and unstable to walk on, so they didn't dare go inside, plus, as Natalia reminded them, it would be trespassing. Though, when Natalia’s back was turned, Andrei did convince Vlad to climb up the wall and into a window, it didn't do anything so Vlad climbed back out just in time so Natalia missed him going in.

She was highly suspicious of the dust and pebbles on his shoulder that wouldn't have gotten there by him just walking around, but after Vlad swore he didn't walk around inside Natalia let it go. And Vlad didn't lie, he didn't walk around he merely stood inside.

 

But the searching had to stop, it was almost time for the festival to end and Natalia had to be backs so her brother wouldn't get suspicious.

 

They all gathered to talk a little to the side of the mansion, mostly to break the news to Andrei that they had to leave. He was sure that somewhere, there was an opening or a crack that would take us into the mansion and to meet the wizard, but Yordana wasn't so sure, and neither were Vlad and Natalia.

 

“Andrei… we have to go back, we can't stay here forever and look, maybe we can come back another time but for know we need to leave.” Vlad said gently, crouching so he and Andrei were eye to eye. Andrei pouted.

 

“But I'm not ready to leave! What if we miss the chance to see the wizard!”

 

Putting a reassuring hand on Andrei’s shoulder, Vlad tried to be comforting.

 

“Listen Andrei, we don't have a choice but to go, miss Natalia's already been so nice as to let us come here, it would be mean if we make her get in trouble, wouldn't it?”

 

Andrei seemed to understand that, and he nodded dejectedly.

 

“Ok…”

 

Vlad and Yordana smiled encouragingly at him, though Yordana had to admit, she was a little disappointed herself.

 

“We need to go back know, so come on.” Natalia didn't wait, she just turned on her heels and started walking, and Vlad quickly caught up with her, already ready with something to talk to her about.

 

Yordana started to walk to, but was stopped by the sound of pebbles crunching and scuffle, turning, she saw that Andrei had gone back up the to the mansion.

 

“Andrei!” Yordana said quietly, her instinct know that she was alone was to be as silent as possible. She uneasily moved towards the back of the mansion, where it was most decrepit and crumbled. Bits of wall and roof were laying haphazardly everywhere, and Andrei could have hidden behind any of them.

After taking a few cautious steps, Yordana heard something.

 

“Psst! Yordana!” Hearing Andrei whispering her name, Yordana turned around quickly to try and find him and make sure he was safe. She spotted him maybe 200 feet away, crouching on a slight incline behind a crumbled and moss invested wall and beckoning her to him.

 

“What are you doing?! Didn't you hear Natalia say it's time to go back?” Yordana hiked up her skirt and started making her way towards him, careful not to fall over anything in the dark.

 

Andrei waved his hand.

 

“That doesn't matter, Dana I found something! I think it's a crack in the magic that the wizard put up!” Yordana’s curiosity was peaked, and she hurried over to where he was crouching. He pointed excitedly towards the wall, and at first Yordana didn't see anything, but as she stared, the shadows of the wall seemed to shift and twist, until the outlines of a large crack the size of Andrei was visible. Yordana’s eyes widened and she took a cautious step closer and put her hand where just a few seconds

ago, a wall had been. Her fingers touched nothing.

 

She withdrew her hand and looked down at Andrei, he was grinning up at her, his face filled with renewed excitement.

 

“How did…” Yordana started to ask, but then she remembered that Andrei had already told her what he thought this was, so she changed what she was going to say. “I guess you were right, something odd is happening here.”

 

He nodded, and peered down the tunnel. Yordana got down to his level and looked too. It was Andrei’s size, but it wouldn't be hard for someone her size to go crawl through.

 

“We should go in! Right?!” When Yordana nodded, Andrei eagerly started going in, but Yordana stopped him.

 

“Wait! Shouldn't we get Natalia and Vlad? They came all this way too, so they should also come with us.”

 

Andrei groaned.

 

“Buuut Yordana! If we go find them, we might not be able to find this crack again! There's a million walls that look like this one, and what if the crack only shows at a certain time and we end up missing the chance to go in!”

 

Yordana chewed her lip, he had a point… but, Vlad and Natalia also had already gone into the woods to go back, and had probably noticed by now that Andrei and Yordana weren't with them and would be coming back anyways. Andrei will just have to wait for them.

 

Yordana stood up to her full height and dusted the dirt of her dress, speaking in an authoritative manner as she did so.

 

“They'll be coming back any minute now, and when they do then we will all go into it together, alright?”

 

Andrei got up, but he didn't look happy.

 

“Alright… but how are we going to find it again?! If we go away it might go as well!”

 

“We’ll just go to the bottom of this incline and what for them okay? That way we will still be close to the opening that we know where it is, and we are out in the open enough that they can see us easily.”

 

Andrei deflated, and sighed dejectedly.

“All right… I'll wait…”

 

Yordana smiled at him. “Good, let's go then!”

 

She turned and started making her way back down the incline, the full moon still being the only source of light. She could hear Andrei behind her, shuffling and grumbling. She was almost at the bottom when she felt a spray of pebbles hit her back and the sound of running feet behind her.

 

Whipping around, Yordana yelled Andrei’s name as she sprinted up the incline after him. He was a lot more nimble then her though, and crawled into the crack in the wall before Yordana made it up after him. Exasperation filled her, and she got on her knees and hands and crawled in after him.

 

“Andrei! Come back here right now!”

 

He didn't respond, and soon he was out of ear shot.

 

The further she crawled, the darker and darker the tunnel became. Soon, she was raising her hands in front of her to make sure she didn't run into anything. Thankfully the tunnel didn't seem to be getting any smaller, but it wasn't getting bigger either. After a couple minutes, Yordana unknowingly got to close to the wall and cut her cheek on a particularly sharp stone. She raised her hand, but stopped as she felt all the dust and dirt fall of it and decided it would be better not to touch a cut with dirty hands. Instead she ignored the pain and the slight trickle of blood and continued crawling. After two more minutes, the tunnel started getting lighter, and Yordana thanked the stars as she was finally able to see. As soon as her eyes readjusted, her left hand touched something soft. She recoiled immediately, thinking it was a mouse. But when no sound of scurrying reach her ears, nor did she see any movement, she gingerly placed her hand back down, and realized it was carpet. She went further, and was completely on the carpet now. It was getting brighter and brighter, and she saw that the stone was now a smooth bright white. And then finally, her head went through another crack nearly identical to the one she had gone into to.

 

Almost identical.

 

Yordana gaped as she pulled herself out of the hole.

 

Tables and shelves lined every inch of the wall, and they were filled with glistening objects, some she knew, somethings she didn’t. Books of all shapes and sizes were also crammed between the objects, and some sheets of paper were sticking out oddly from within their pages as if they had been shoved in hastily.

 

Tall vases, pedestals with weird spinning metal gizmos, and a statue of a woman with long hair and a weirdly militaristic suit with a skirt were in the center of the room, and Yordana almost started walking towards the statue to admire its details.  The woman had to be someone of high society, as her clothes and pose was of someone who had power. Yordana noted that her clothes were dated be a couple decades, and judging by the scar on her cheek and sword at her side, this woman had been an important military figure of some kind. Curiosity of just who this woman could be overtook Yordana, and she took a step towards it to admire it more closely.

 

Whoever had sculpted it had done a fantastic job, the folds and creases of the clothes and her skin were superb, and the scar on her cheek looked incredibly detailed. Yordana reached out her hand to touch the bottom of the statue’s coat, but then remembered herself and just where she was.

 

She spun around and her eyes fell to where the crack had been, but it was know gone. Not believing her eyes, Yordana rushed over and ran her hands over the spot where it had been minutes before, but it was gone. A little drop of panic entered Yordana, and she took a couple deep breaths to get ahold of herself.

 

She couldn’t panic, she needed to find Andrei, and then they would leave.

 

“ANDREI!”

 

Yordana couldn’t believe she had briefly forgotten why she had been crawling in that tunnel and was know where she was in the first place.

 

There was only one exit out of the room, and Yordana quickly went through it. She was know in a grand hallway, with high ceilings and beams. A large crystal chandelier swung gently in the middle, casting dazzling light onto every surface of the hall. The walls of the hallway were also filled with tables covered in papers and books, and the occasional tiny object that hummed when Yordana walked past them.

 

The door she came through was at the very end of the hall, and there was no other way to go but down it. She cautiously walked down it, careful not to bother anything on the tables. The swinging of the chandelier bothered her, as there was no breeze to move it and she feared it would fall on her as she walked beneath it. Thankfully it didn’t, it just stayed in its spot, swinging.

 

Large wooden doors went off from the hall, but none of the were open and she couldn’t hear anything inside, so Yordana just had to assume Andrei hadn’t gone into one of them.

 

At the end of the hall was an identical one, going in both the left and the right directions. Yordana bit her lip, she didn’t know which one to go down, she supposed she’d have to randomly guess and pray that Andrei had went that way.

 

She looked down both way. They were identical to each other. Nothing that would obviously catch Andrei’s attention was at either end. Unsure, Yordana took a couple steps down to the right, and stopped.

 

She could hear a faint sound of kicking. Like feet that were too small to touch the ground sitting in a chair did when they were bored. It had to be Andrei!

 

She started briskly walking down the hall, scared to run in case it alerted something she didn’t want to know she was here. This was a Wizards house after all, and no one knows what’s inside a Wizards house but the Wizard. Yordana wasn’t sure she wanted to meet him anymore. She was sure now he would be a cross old man for them trespassing, and she’d rather grab Andrei and leave before he finds either of them.

 

The kicking got louder, and was joined by a tuneless humming that was for sure Andrei!

 

The walls suddenly were open archways, and Yordana blinked. There had been no sign of the hallway opening, and when she looked behind her, the hall was open archways for as far as she could see. A shiver went up her spine, that must have been magic.

 

Even more antsy to leave, Yordana continued and the humming got louder and louder until it she was at the archway that Andrei was in.

 

Looking in, relief flooded through her as it was Andrei who had been humming.

 

“Andrei!”

 

Yordana called out to him in relief, and he looked up at her and waved cheerfully, a fork in his hand.

 

“You finally made it Dana! I’ve been waiting!”

 

She walked towards where he was sitting comfortable in a plush chair, a small table in front of him with a large cake on it. He had a slice of cake in front of him, and he took a bite and pointed at one of the chairs at the table.

 

“Sit down Dana, have a slice, it’s good! Magic is a really great baker!”

 

Yordana didn’t sit down, but she did lean on one of the chairs for support.

 

“Magic?” She asked weakly. Andrei nodded and talked with his mouth full.

 

“Yef, eh meef ta wifard,” Andrei swallowed, “he’s a nice guy! He was acting like he was upset for me to be here, but I can tell his happy to have company! He even gave me this cake to eat while he went to find bandages to wrap my cuts!”

 

“What cuts?!” Yordana was by his side instantly, forcing him to look at her to make sure he didn’t have any cuts on his face, after that she quickly moved to check his arms. Andrei shook her off him and wiggled a little in his seat so he could stick his leg out and show her. He had worn shorts to the festival, and they his knees where cut nicely from crawling on the rough stone of the tunnel.

 

She kneeled and looked at it carefully, they were shallow cuts, and would need to be disinfected, but overall, he would heal fine.

 

“OH good! Another unwanted guest.”

 

A disgruntled voice spoke, and Yordana stood up and spun around to look at the person while Andrei said cheerfully: “This is my sister I was telling you about Mr. Wizard!”

 

The Wizard stalked into the room and Yordana’s breath caught.

 

She had been wrong, so very, very wrong.

 

The wizard wasn’t old, wrinkly and bearded, no the opposite in fact.

 

The Wizard was young and incredibly attractive.

 

He looked to be in his early twenties, and was far from being wrinkly. His skin was fair and smooth, and it almost looked porcelain. His pale blonde hair was soft and slightly wavy, and was long enough that the tips danced across the base of his neck. The tips curled inwards at the back of his neck and chin, and it looked as airy as a feather. He had long bangs that swept to the side and covered most of his left eye, while the hair on the right side of his face was tucked behind his ear and the tips curved back and seemed to emphasis his cheek bones. His eyes were a mystical blue, that reminded Yordana of light being reflected through a blue diamond.

 

He was wearing an expensive button up gray silk shirt, with a dark blue vest and matching blue dress pants. His shoes clicked and clacked on the shining tile floor as he briskly came towards the table and set a medium box he had been holding onto it.

 

“So, you’re this child’s sister?”

 

Yordana nodded numbly.

 

The Wizard opened the box and pulled out a stack of bandages, he turned and moved past Yordana to kneel in front of Andrei, and with a wave of his hand the dirt and grim on his knees was gone.

 

“It’s quite rude to come into someone’s house unannounced.”  He said casually, but Yordana didn’t really hear him. At his display of magic, Yordana had let out a soft gasp, while Andrei let out an excited squeak.  Andrei’s eyes were as round as saucers, and Yordana’s hand was in a vice grip on a chair.

 

“That was magic, right?!” Andrei asked eagerly as the Wizard started bandaging his knees.

 

The Wizard nodded to Andrei’s question.

 

“Naturally it was, how else would I have done it if not magic?”

 

“That’s true! I guess since I haven’t seen magic before, I didn’t know what it looked like.” Andrei got a thoughtful expression on his face. “I suppose that must be a tiring question to hear huh?”

 

Shrugging elegantly, the Wizard finished bandaging one knee and Andrei moved so he could start on the other. After waving his hand again and getting rid of the dirt, the Wizard answered Andrei’s question.

 

“Not really, one of the most entertaining things about having magic is shocking people with displays of it. I personally never get tired of those questions!”

 

Behind them both, Yordana pulled out one of the chairs and sat down. The magnitude of everything she had seen in the past fifteen minutes caught up with her, and she was starting to feel light head. The last thing she wanted was to faint in front of the Wizard.

 

The Wizard cast a glance over at her.

 

“I’ve heard it can all be very overwhelming, learning about magic and seeing it up close, so it’s a good thing you sat down. A couple years back a group of kids found their way in here and one of them fainted! Perhaps it had been my own fault, I did go overboard with defenses back then, but either way I’m glad you finally moved. You were starting to look like a statue standing there all motionless, and I don’t need another one of those about!”

 

Yordana wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so instead she hummed a little, then talked to Andrei.

 

“How are your knees feeling?”

The Wizard finished, and Andrei hopped off the seat as the Wizard stepped back and returned the remaining bandages to the box. Andrei jumped a couple times, and then smiled.

 

“They feel fine!”

 

The Wizard flicked some of his bangs back in a rather dramatic way.

 

“He’ll be fine! Those bandages will heal him twice as fast as any normal bandage would.” He leaned both hands against the table and smirked. “And since I made them, the magic won’t leave for at least two years! That means I’ll be wanting them back.”

 

He looked pointedly at Yordana when he said that, and she nodded.

 

“Of course.”

 

Andrei, excited that he could walk without pain again, raced over and through one of the four archways making up the walls of the room. Yordana jumped up to follow him, but the Wizard raised his hand.

 

“He’ll be fine, the only thing that way is the animals who will adore attention.”

 

Yordana wasn’t sure, and she peered nervously towards the archway, still standing.

 

“Ah, now I really should have noticed you two were siblings.”

Puzzled at this statement that Wizard made, Yordana turned her head and looked quizzically at him.

 

“Why is that?”

 

The Wizard leaned over to her and gently touched her chin. Yordana’s eyes widened, and she could feel her skin warming beneath his cool touch. There was a small spark that seemed to shoot through her from where his fingers touched, and Yordana’s mind assured her it was probably just magic.

 

He turned her right cheek towards him and mused,

 

“You both come into my house injured for one.”

 

Her mouth formed an “o”, and as if on cue, the cut on her cheek started throbbing again.

 

The Wizard clicked his tongue,and let go of her chin. He looked back into the box and started looking through it for something.

 

“Is all your family so danger prone as to get hurt while crawling through a simple tunnel? Or is it just the two of you.”

 

Yordana shrugged awkwardly, she really wasn’t sure how she was supposed to talk to him.

 

“I have been told my papa’s side of the family has some pretty bad luck, so I think it’s more just bad luck then us being prone to danger.”

 

“That could be it, but I do have to ask how you managed to scrap your cheek on a wall, I feel inclined to be impressed that you were able to touch something with your face before your shoulders.”

 

He’s tone was sarcastic, and Yordana’s cheeks warmed with annoyance, which only caused her cheek to hurt more.

 

“It was pitch dark and I lost track of where I was, and the stone that cut my cheek was extruding from the wall so I had no way of knowing it was there!”

 

She sat back down, and huffed.

 

“Well then I’m impressed by the stone for finding your face and dodging all your other body parts.”

 

The Wizard found what he was looking for, a small square cloth, and he set it down on the table. He then started looking through it again, this time grabbing small bottles of liquid and holding them up into the light.

 

“I’m not very impressed by it, the cut hurts rather bad.” Yordana said truthfully. “And the tunnel was filthy and I’m sure the stone was covered in all sorts of grim that went into my cheek!”

 

He nodded. “Most likely.”

 

A story that Mrs. Balakov had told Yordana flashed into her mind, and panic started.

 

“Oh no, I heard a story of a man who got cut with a rock that was covered in grim and it got all infected and it got so bad that it rotted off-” The implication of what would happen to her own cheek if she got the same infection made Yordana’s eyes grow in fear.

 

“Oh, what if that happens to me?!  I was told it was so painful that the man was begging people to just cut it off!”

 

“Good thing it fell off itself then. Saved everyone the trouble.”

 

Yordana didn’t hear Wizard.

 

“I can’t even imagine that much pain! The most pain I’ve been in was when my brother Vlad accidentally hit me in the head with a ball he was throwing for his dog Ileana and it hit me instead! I lost a tooth and had a black eye for weeks but that’s the worst pain and I wasn’t begging people to cut anything off!”

 

“I would be more troubled if you were begging people to cut something off, that would have just been weird.” The Wizard murmured to himself.

 

Again, Yordana didn’t hear him. She started anxiously drumming her fingers on the table, her eyes were looking at the cake but she wasn’t focusing on it.  Her mind was going a mile a minute with worry and panic scenarios.

 

“What if I got an even worse infection?! Can there be a worse infection then a body part rotting so much it falls off-” Yordana stopped. A thought occurred to her, she turned and looked at the Wizard. He had stopped himself and was staring at her with the slightest sign of amusement in his face.

 

“Can a cheek fall off?” Yordana asked both out of fear and genuine curiosity.

 

The Wizard smiled as if he was having an inside joke.  
  
“It depends on what cheek your talking about.”

 

Yordana scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, what other cheeks would she be talking about? She was about to ask, but the Wizard closed the box and picked up the cloth and a bottle.

 

“And you don’t have to worry about any of what you just rambled about.” He sat down on the armrest of the plush chair and turned her left cheek towards him again. He leaned close and started cleaning the cut with cloth. “I’m going to take care of it.”

 

“Al-alright… thank you.” She thanked him shyly.

 

“At least you’re grateful! Most people don’t even say a small thank you when I help them, which is just rude! I go out of my way to help out of the goodness of my own heart, and I don’t even get a token of gratitude!”

 

Yordana only “hmm’d” in response, she would listen to his problem but she was facing one of her own.

 

She didn’t know where to look.

 

If she looked straight forward, then she’d be looking directly at him. Which was awkward for her to do since they were rather close to each other. She could feel his breath on her face as he talked, and it smelled like mint and made Yordana extremely self-conscious of what her own breath must smell like. She was now trying to breathe through her nose in an attempt to not embarrass herself with bad breath.

 

Back to her dilemma of where her eyes should be: Yordana had to admit that she wanted to look at him, the Wizard was incredibly handsome after all. But it was too embarrassing for her to even do for a second! So for a while she switched between looking at him and looking at the cake. She decided to focus on looking at the cake, the cake was a pretty good looking cake anyway, so at least she’d be looking at something worth staring at.

 

 

“It’s rude to not look at someone when they’re talking to you, especially when they’re being nice enough to clean a wound for you.” The Wizard’s voice was light, but Yordana could tell he was bothered. She bit her lip, still looking at the cake. She hadn’t wanted him to notice, and truthfully, she thought he wouldn’t.

 

“Sorry I just… find it awkward to look at your face when it’s so close. I’m not usually this close to anyone ever, so I’m not exactly comfortable…”

 

He let out a sigh. It was rather dramatic.

 

“Oh if that’s what you choose to do then fine! But surely I would be better to look at then that cake?”

 

Yordana did not know how to answer that in any way. He was right, he would be more pleasing to look at of course, but the fact that he was asking her to affirm it was throwing her off.

 

“Yes, you would be, but the cake isn’t so bad itself.”

 

“Really?” He sounded slightly offended, “Well then.”

 

He moved his hand that was keeping her head in place and raised it above his head and snapped his fingers.

 

The cake disappeared.

 

Yordana blinked.

“That was rather excessive, I was just looking at it.”

 

The Wizard shrugged, and Yordana moved her eyes to look at him.

 

“Andrei isn’t here to eat it, so I saw no reason to keep it around drawing unneeded attention to itself.”

 

“Ah.” Was the only thing Yordana could say, she thought she might understand now.

The Wizard liked people to focus attention on him, that was something Yordana had not expected. Though to be fair, she hadn’t expected anything the Wizard turned out to be.

 

Their conversation stopped there, and Yordana found looking at the Wizard just as embarrassing as she knew it would be.

 

She had never been this close to someone before, and in all the romance books she read, this was how close you got to someone before you kissed them. That only brought her to look at his lips, which was even more embarrassing for her. She forced herself to look at a different feature on his face, and that was when she noticed something that really made her heart pound at how close they were.

 

She could see individual eyelashes.

 

Yordana didn’t know why, but something about being able to see his dark lashes made just how little distance was between them obvious. When he blinked, the tips of his lashes almost brushed against the tops of his cheeks, and she found herself starting to get a little envious of his long lashes. Hers in comparison were much less long, though she supposed they were fuller then his… but his were lovelier to look at!

 

Yordana pinched her leg to force herself to pay attention to something else. She needed to not focus on strange things!

 

That was when something glistened and caught her attention.

 

He had earrings.

 

One right ear had a smaller metal earring that had a small string of black metal dangling, while his left ear had a much bigger earring that was mostly hidden beneath his wavy hair. It was a long strand of the same metal that was only just smaller than his hair, and both were polished so greatly that they reflected light.

 

Yordana was fascinated. She had never seen such interesting earrings! The most common ones she saw were worn by the rich old women, and they had feathers and stones in them, never had she seen such a simple yet elegant earring.

 

She was so interested, that she lifted her right hand and gently touched the right earring. She was delighted when the surface of the strand was so smooth it moved against her skin like silk.

“Your earrings are unique, I’ve never seen anything like them! What are they made of?”

 

The Wizard paused to let her give the earring another swish, before reaching up himself and detaching it so she could look closer.

 

“They are made of black iron, carefully shaped and crafted to look like they do. You have a good eye if you noticed them!”

 

Yordana took the earring and looked at it closely, the metal was black, but she could see that it was made of a bunch of tiny chain like pieces, and they all hooked together and made it as flexible as they were.

 

“Wow, whoever made this is incredible!” Yordana breathed, her father spent his entire life making and crafting things, and not once had he ever gotten close to the amazing work that must have gone into this single earring.

 

“Thank you, it did take a while to make, and I’m fairly proud of how well it turned out.” The Wizard was smug as he reached over to the box and picked up a bandage that would fit over her cheek. Yordana looked up at him with surprise.

 

“ _You_ made this?!”

When the Wizard nodded, Yordana looked down at the earring again and let out another breathy wow.

 

“Ah, it’s nice to have someone admire my none magical work for once, usually they just clamor and gawk over my magical expertise, but I’m grateful you’re noticing one of the smaller things I’m good at.”

 

“Well, you’re welcome, I think.” Yordana gave the earring back to him, and while he put it back she reached up and touched her cheek. All the dirt that had covered the area around the cut was gone, as was the dried blood.

 

“Don’t touch the wound, I cleaned it thoroughly and it’s ready for a bandage.” Her hand jumped into her lap as he spoke, since even though he had said it just like he’d say any other sentence, she didn’t want to anger him by dirtying the wound.

 

He leaned forward on the armrest again, and Yordana positioned herself so he wouldn’t have to hold her. The square bandage was placed carefully on top of the wound, and he traced his finger delicately along the edge. She felt a tingle on her cheek beneath wherever his finger glided, and she felt oddly comforted by the feeling. And a soft smile touched her lips, she felt relaxed.

Or she did, until she noticed that she was staring at his face and smiling. The implication that smiling in such a way would give him made the previous relaxed feelings jump out the nearest window to be replaced with pinked cheeks and awkwardness.

 

Gosh she was just a bundle of awkward and weird feelings around the Wizard! She didn’t know how much longer she could take of being awkward and nervous.

 

Thankfully, the Wizard finished magic-ing the bandage to her face and got off the armrest.

 

“There you go, wound cleaned and bandaged exceptionally well, and the chance of infection and falling off is null!”

 

Oh stars she had rambled about that, didn’t she? Great, it was just another thing to add to the list of weird and awkward thing she did in front of Wizard.

 

Yordana touched her hand testily on the bandage, and then looked up at him and smiled.

 

“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that, but I’m grateful that you did!”

 

Wizard waved his hand nonchalantly, but Yordana could tell he was happy he got thanked. He was standing straighter then before and had a smug air about him. But a deserving smug, not a rude smug that people like Conrad wore everywhere.

 

“Well, barging into my home or not, you are still a visitor, and I treat my visitors as well as they treat me!”

 

Yordana wasn’t sure what he exactly meant by that, but she thought it was good. But he brought up a good point, her and Andrei were technically trespassing in his house.

 

“I am sorry to have barged in so abruptly and… well, injured and dirty. But Andrei really wanted to meet you and he’s a headstrong child.”

 

The Wizard nodded, placing his hand on his hip.

 

“That he is, I can tell just from talking to him. Speaking of the little child,” Wizard turned and started walking towards the archway Andrei had ran through. “I think it’s about time he stopped playing with the animals.”

 

“Of course! It’s time we went home anyway, we did leave two people outside who have no idea where we are…” Yordana stood up hastily, but the Wizard stopped at the archway and waved for her to sit down.

 

“You sit down and I’ll get him, it will be faster if I do it alone.”  And then he walked through the archway and disappeared. Yordana slowly sat back down, and waited for the Wizard to come back with her little brother, who was undoubtedly going to be gushing about whatever animals the Wizard owned.

 

\---

Andrei came running in, with the Wizard sauntering after him. Yordana stood up just in time to have Andrei jump onto her and wrap himself around her legs.

 

“You won’t believe what I just saw! There was a huge scaly creature with a horn, and a large horse with a horn, and a small lizard with a horn!! And a dog! Which I wished had a horn, dogs would look so much cooler if they had horns!!”

 

Yordana smiled and smoothed his hair down, it had gone rather crazy looking in all the excitement and some chunks were standing straight up.

 

“I’m glad you had fun, but it’s time we left. Vlad and Natalia are probably out there looking for us, and you know how worried Vlad gets about you.”

 

Andrei sighed, lifting his arms up and then letting them fall back down.

 

“Yeah… he’s probably sitting on a rock somewhere and moaning about how terrible a sibling he is…”

 

Yordana nodded.

 

“Most likely yes, we need to go save him before he starts talking like a poet.”

 

Andrei scrunched up his face in disgust.

 

“I hate when he does that, I never understand a word he says. What even is a sonnet?”

 

“It’s a specific way to write a poem, similar to how a haiku is a method to write poetry.”

 

The Wizard spoke up from where he was leaning against an archway, and Andrei nodded sagely.

 

“I see, like a haiku that makes sense!”

 

A moment passed.

 

“What is a haiku?” Andrei whispered to Yordana, though she was sure the Wizard could still hear him. Yordana didn’t know either, so she shrugged.

 

“I don’t know, I’m terrible at writing remember? I can barely write birthday letters much less something pleasing to read.” She whispered back.

Andrei wasn’t satisfied with her answer, but when the Wizard didn’t seem to want to explain a haiku either, Andrei resigned that he would have to ask Vlad.

 

Actually, not knowing sounded just as good as listening to one of Vlad’s hour long lectures about literature, and Andrei wasn’t sure which one would be less torture.

 

“We better save miss Natalia from Vlad then, she’s been nice enough to let us onto the property, it would be really rude to leave her with Vlad in one of his poetic funks huh?” At Yordana’s nod to his question, Andrei started walking past her to the hall where the crack had been, but Yordana reached out and stopped him.

 

“Not yet!” She gently swung him back around to face the Wizard, telling him as she did so, “You need to thank the Wizard, he’s been nice enough to not only bandage your knees but also let you play with his animals.”

 

The Wizard looked stunned, did he never get thanked? It was only polite after all to thank him!

 

His eyes were wide and he stared at Yordana, then at Andrei as he skipped forward and did a short bow.

 

“Oh right! Thank you, Mr. Wizard! You’re really nice and I loved your animals!”

 

“Yes… of course, glad you liked the animals.”

 

Wizard waved his hand, and Yordana could tell he wasn’t familiar with receiving thanks.

 

She decided to move on to a different topic, and save the Wizard from looking so uncomfortable.

 

She stepped forward from where she had been standing between a chair and the table, her hands laced in front of her.

 

“Nicely done Andrei!” Andrei beamed at her and moved back to stand beside her. “Um, Wizard, how may we leave? The tunnel that we crawled through was gone when after I left it, so is there another way we can go out of?”  This brought the Wizard back to his usual self.

 

He walked with a click of his shoes towards the hallway and beckoned them to follow him.

 

“The tunnel didn’t close, it’s still there. I just only have it show at certain times since it’s rather appalling to have a large crack in the wall. It really ruins the whole feel of the house if I just had cracks everywhere there was an opening!”

 

Yordana and Andrei hurried after him, with Andrei practically sprinting so he could walk next to the Wizard.

“How do you do that? Like is it a certain type of magic?” The Wizard nodded, Yordana had to walk faster to keep up with the Wizard’s long strides, poor Andrei was really working his small legs to stay next to him.

 

“It’s illusion magic, simple enough magic but made complex with the fact that I have it on a time schedule to dispel and then redo the magic again on itself. It’s really quite hard to figure out, but once it’s set in place it’s easy to maintain.”

 

“Cool!!” Andrei was fascinated by magic and kept asking questions about it all the way to the statue room where the crack was.

 

Andrei stopped in the middle of a question about whether bats were magical creatures, and eagerly asked a different one.

 

“How are you going to show make the tunnel show??”

 

The Wizard stopped in front of the only part of the wall that didn’t have something covering it and raised his hand, pointing at the wall, then he lifted it up and the crack appeared.

 

“That’s how I’m going to do it.”

 

Andrei let out a wow and crouched down into the tunnel. He started pocking and prodding the edges of the opening, trying to do something that Yordana didn’t have a clue about.

 

She moved to stand by the tunnel, and Andrei stuck his head out to smile goofily.

 

“This is all so cool!! Thank you, Mr. Wizard!” And then he ducked his head in and Yordana could hear him scuffling down the tunnel.

 

She turned and smiled as well at the Wizard, and nodded her head at him.

 

“I should thank you too, Mr. Wizard, for letting Andrei play around and helping with his knees and my cheek,” she touched her cheek and felt the magically adhered bandage. “you didn’t have to so I really must thank you for doing so!”

 

He put a hand on his hips and smiled at her, his free hand flipping his bangs.

“It was nothing, no need for thanks. I’ve already told you I treat guests as well as they treat me.”

 

“I’m going to assume that means we weren’t horrible guests, besides barging into your house of course!” Yordana teased, pushing a strand of her black hair behind her ear.

 

“I’ve had worst guests who’ve done worst then barging in, and it was nice having someone who was genuinely interested in what I do. After all, magic is a rarity and should be appreciated when it’s found, I’m glad your brother knows that.”

 

He stood across from Yordana and leaned against the wall, his eyes gleaming.

 

“Well, if anyone would appreciate magic it would be Andrei, he’s heard stories about it since he was born after all. I don’t blame him, coming from our normal lives into such a fascinating and different place is such a thrill I’m surprised he didn’t overexert himself in excitement.”

 

“What about you? How do you feel about magic?”

 

Yordana bit her lip, she’d give him the short yet truthful answer.

 

“Well, I find it fascinating and extraordinary. It’s so special and powerful, how can anyone not be in awe when they see it in action?”

 

Smirking, the Wizard folded his arms.

 

“Well, just so you know magic is only as great as the person who uses it is, so I’m going to take what you just said as a complement to myself~” Yordana giggled,

 

“I didn’t know that, I’ll keep it in mind next time I meet someone with magic, and see if their magic is as impressive as yours!”

 

“Please do, and be prepared to be disappointed when no one is better at magic than me!”

 

Yordana crouched down and balanced herself before crawling into the tunnel, she sent the Wizard one last smile before going in.

 

“I’ll only have you as a reference, so unless they did something spectacular I think I’d just assume you’re better than them.”

 

She could hear the grin in the Wizard’s voice he answered.

 

“As I said, no one will ever be better.”

 

Yordana crawled a few feet into the tunnel, when suddenly she was back in the statue room.

 

She blinked and stood up, and looked quizzically at the Wizard.

 

“What just happened?”

 

“I had something else to tell you Andrei’s sister, so I brought you back.”

Yordana was taken aback, she wasn’t used to being called Andrei’s sister, it was usually Vlad’s sister and she didn’t like the Wizard only knowing her by her older sibling status.

 

“I do have a name.”

 

The Wizard straightened from where he had been leaning and shrugged delicately.

 

“So do I, but everyone just calls me Wizard anyway so I don’t have much of a choice.”

 

How rude of Yordana, she felt ashamed that she forgot her manners and didn’t ask the Wizard his name.

 

"Well, my name is Yordana. What's yours?”

 

He raised an eyebrow.

 

“Does it matter?”

 

“Yes! I hate it when people refer to me as this person’s sister or the inventor’s daughter, and it was very hypocritical and rude of me to only call you Wizard and not ask your name, so would you please tell me your name?!”

 

Yordana was passionate about this subject. The amount of times she had been called or known only as Vladimir’s sister or her father’s daughter happened so often that when people did call her actual name she assumed they weren’t talking to her. She felt terrible that she didn’t ask the Wizard’s name first upon them meeting, and really wanted to make up for it.

 

She was so passionate that she had stepped forward to be in front of the Wizard, and he looked fairly surprised.

 

“Well then, since you asked so nicely and told me your name I suppose it’s only fair. My name is Laurence.”

 

Yordana beamed at him.

 

“It’s a very nice name, Laurence!”

 

He shifted his feet.

 

“Well, thank you… Yordana.” The slight hint of pink appeared on his pale cheeks, and he quickly hurried to tell her what he needed to. “Anyway, I brought you back to remind you to bring back the bandages once the injuries have healed, and to give you this.”

 

He lifted up his hand and a white camellia appeared. Yordana felt her cheeks warm as he gave it to her, and she carefully turned it around in her hands. He gave her a flower, what did this mean?! Giving someone flowers meant romantic feelings, right?? Or no, only certain types of flowers meant romantic feelings?? Yordana couldn’t remember, she only knew roses meant love.

 

“That’s for when you’re in the tunnel, the darker it gets the more the flower will glow and light up the dark, so try not to cut your cheek on anything else, alright?”

 

Oh, that’s why he gave it to her. Yordana felt a little disappointed.

 

“I see. I’ll try not to hurt myself, thank you for the flower.”

 

The Wiza- Laurence gestured towards the opening of the tunnel.

 

“You’re welcome. Go back in and I’ll get you to where Andrei is. I’m sure he’s getting impatient waiting for you.”

 

Yordana nodded, and started crawling into the tunnel. She was halfway inside when Laurence stopped her again.

 

“Oh, and Yordana.”

 

She withdrew her head. The smile he was wearing was much different than any other she’d seen him do, it seemed more genuine.

 

“Yes?”

 

“None horrible guests are welcomed back .”  Yordana blinked. Then smiled warmly.

 

“I'll tell Andrei, he'll be thrilled… almost as much as me.”  And then she reentered the tunnel, where she only had to crawl a few feet before she was transported to the middle of the tunnel right behind Andrei.

 

“Finally Dana! What took you so long?! And what’s that light?”

 

Yordana didn’t respond, instead she just held up the flower and gazed at its glow with a strange feeling in her chest.

 

“It was a gift from the wizard.” She whispered.

 

\--

 

Back in the mansion, Laurence lowered his hand, and on his end the tunnel disappeared. He stood there looking at it for a moment, then he turned around and looked at the stature.

 

“She was interesting, wasn't she?” He said mostly to himself. “But.” He started walking out of the room, his hand fiddling with his right earring. “Why did my magic turn it into a flower? I planned for it to be a simple stick, that was all… but then my magic had other plans…” the click clack of his shoes echoed in the empty mansion, leaving an eerie feeling of emptiness.

 

“But why _that_ flower?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't wait to write more of Laurence's character, he's so fun to write!!!!


	3. Camellias and Normality

“I'm a horrible brother. I'm the oldest, I'm supposed to take care of both of them, and I just let them disappear. Who knows what has happened to them, but I know I'm terrible.”

Vladimir was sitting gloomily on a rock, slumped over with his hands over his face. Natalia sat close by, but not to close.

She reached out her hand and patted his shoulder awkwardly.

“I'm… sure that they're fine. Don't beat yourself up too much.”

“No! I'm horrible! Why didn't I look over my shoulder?! It would have been so easy if I had just turned around and noticed they weren't behind us!”

Natalia retracted her arm.

“Hmm well… maybe they went a different way. We should head back to the festival and if they aren't there, then we’ll come back and look.”

Vlad sighed dejectedly. “I suppose we can do that… but-“

“Ooooh! We are at the end Dana!!!”

Andrei’s voice shouted from somewhere behind the mansion, and Vlad was booking it towards the back of the mansion before Natalia had even stood up.

She ran after him, but stopped to stare as Yordana pulled herself out of a wall. The wall looked solid. But Yordana easily crawled out.

Natalia didn't know what was stranger: Yordana crawling out of a solid wall, or the glowing flower looped through a button hole on her dress.

Vlad threw a grinning Andrei into a hug, his voice a mix of relief and worry.

“Where have you two been?! I've been pulling my hair out worrying over you two!”

Andrei pulled back from Vladimir and squinted up at his hair, examining it.

“You don't look like you pulled out your hair, why would you do that out of worry anyway?” His eyes suddenly lit up and he started jumping up and down excitedly.

“NEVER MIND THAT! WE MET THE WIZARD!!!”

Vlad looked astonished. His mouth dropped open, and his voice was full of shock.

“You wHAT?!”

He turned and looked at Yordana to see if it was true.

She half shrugged, her hands were busy unloosing the flower from her dress and Natalia could see the faintest hint of color on her cheeks.

“W-we did meet him. He was really nice, gave Andrei cake.”

She gestured at Andrei, and he nodded enthusiastically.

“Magic cake!”

Natalia wasn't sure what she believed, but she did just see Yordana crawl out of a wall with a bandage on her cheek and a glowing camellia on her bosom, so she was inclined to believe something happened. Or she was just tired.

“You met him?! How?! I tried for years when I was younger and I never saw a way in!”

Natalia should have guessed that Vlad believed them. And she wasn't surprised to hear that he had tried finding the Wizard. She'd heard a lot from her brother about Vladimir Popescu and his family, and she used to think he was exaggerating just a little when he complained about Vladimir. But know Natalia knew he wasn't.

Vladimir was just as weird and charismatic as her Ivan told her.

Yordana stepped to the side and pointed at the piece of wall she was in front of.

“There's a tunnel here that leads to his mansion. It's a beautiful mansion, with crisp white walls!”

“AND A ROOM FULL OF ANIMALS WITH HORNS!!” Andrei demonstrated what the horns looked like by putting his hand on his forehead and sticking out his pointer finger.

Natalia closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. She didn't have time for this families weird antics. Ivan had been right, they were nothing but headaches. How she was able to survive dealing with them this long, she had no idea.

Vlad was bombarding them with questions, but Natalia interrupted him by stepping forward and throwing up her hands. They stopped talking and looked at her, Yordana seemed relieved to no longer having to answer.

“We have to go back to the festival, right NOW! You can ask your siblings all your questions later, when your on your way home!”

And she turned around and started walking back, and she soon heard 3 pairs of footsteps behind her, so she didn't stop until the barn was in view. She sighed in relief, the festival wasn't over yet, she could sneak back in and her brother will never know what happened.

They got to the edge of the forest where it opened into the barnyard, and Natalia had taken a step into it when Andrei stopped walking.

“I refuse to go back in there! The meanie is still probably inside and I don't want me or Yordana being around him!” Andrei folded his arms and tried to look intimidating.

Natalia clenched her fist and counted to 4, he was a child who was upset, she needed to be patient.

Yordana sat on a log next to him, and hugged him.

“It's ok, you don't have to go in.”

Vladimir ran his hands through his strawberry blonde hair, and Natalia found herself bothered by the fact that the hat on his head didn't fall off from this.

“Shoot, sorry Andrei I hadn’t thought of that… But Yordana’s right, you don’t have to go in! I’ll go in and say good byes then bring the carriage to pick you two up.”

Putting a hand on her hip, Natalia spoke impatiently.

“It will be easier for him to pick you up if you move over near the road,” She raised her hand and pointed to the left. “The road will be there if you just keep heading that way.”

After Yordana nodded and Andrei smiled at her, Natalia put both hands on her hips and cast a critical eye at all of them.

“Are we good? May I go back to the festival now?”

“Yes, thank you for your help miss Natalia.” Yordana nudged Andrei as she spoke, and he jumped up and hugged Natalia’s legs.

“Thank you for letting us on the property Miss Natalia!! You’re really cool!”

Natalia patted him on the head, he was a cute kid, she’ll admit. He’s enthusiasm for life and determination to meet the Wizard was a little refreshing.

He let go and grabbed Yordana’s hand, pulling her up.

“Good luck Vlad! We’ll see you soon!”

Yordana waved as Andrei pulled her in the direction of the road.

Natalia and Vladimir made eye contact for a moment, then Natalia whirled around and started marching towards the barn. She could hear Vladimir’s footsteps behind her, and she forced herself not to look over her shoulder.

She waited to feel the relief, Vladimir had been practically talking her ear off since they met, and that had been 2 hours ago and Natalia should be relieved that the chatter was going to end. Vladimir was a strange, strange fellow. He had never ending stories about anything strange Natalia could think of.

Witches? His mother was one. Ghost? Bradsbury had a woman who haunted the hotel he stayed at who hid his socks. Mermaids? The lake town of Nymia, just a day’s ride away, had the story of a mermaid who was washed into the lake when the dam was first built and blocked the river leading back to the ocean, trapping her in the lake, where she now lives in the deep deep depths of Lake Nym unable to go back home. Selkie? He swears he saw a seal shed its skin and turn into a boy just off the river to the ocean, though Vlad had admitted that it was dark so he could have been seeing things with that one. Vampires? Ironically, he’s never met one, despite the many a rumor that he was one himself.

Natalia had heard all those stories in just 2 hours! And only about an hour of it had actually been talking! The rest had been searching for the Wizard and then his siblings.

Natalia hated talking, she should feel more then relieved she would be getting rid of Vladimir and his smile, she had no reason to see him again after all, but for some reason she didn’t feel relieved.

Halfway across the barnyard, Natalia glanced back towards him, and scowled.

Vladimir wasn’t looking at her, his red eyes were gazing off to the right and had a tinge of somberness to them. His mouth was in a seemingly relaxed line, but there was a slight tightness to it that Natalia hadn’t seen on him before. His blonde strawberry hair was blowing in the small breeze, and it was tilted to the right as his head was inclining that way. As she watched, he licked his lips, and she saw the tips of his sharp canines gleam as his tongue slide across his lips. She felt a weird warmth in her chest, and she turned her head back, trying to replace the warmth with annoyance. What a weird man with weird vibes he was, she couldn’t wait to be rid of him!

They didn’t say anything until they almost reached the opening into the barn, and Vladimir quickened his pace to walk next to her. He cast her a side look with a grin on his face.

“This seems to be where we part ways Natalia, and I would like to thank you before we do.”

Natalia looked suspiciously at him.

“Thank me for what?”

“For taking Andrei and us to the mansion. You didn’t have to, but you did, so I have too thank you. If you hadn’t, Andrei and Yordana would have never met the Wizard and we would be convinced it was just a story.”

Natalia pursed her lips.

“I did it for your little brother, he was quite upset and distraught so I was moved to help him. If he really did meet the Wizard, then it was worth breaking my brothers rules. If he didn’t… well, my brother will never hear about it from me.”

“He won’t hear it from me either.”

Natalia and Vlad were at the entrance of the barn now, and they gave each other one last look: Vlad sent a cheeky, flirty grin and Natalia sent a smooth glance of indifference, and then they parted ways as they walked into the barn. Music and dancing still taking place.

\---

Vlad quickly came with the carriage to pick up Yordana and Andrei on the side of the road, and they climbed in and Vlad immediately had questions.

“How did the Wizard hide the entrance you two found, and how did you find it?”

Yordana, sitting in the carriage with Andrei kneeling in front of her resting his chin on the bench Vlad was sitting on, answered.

“He used illusion magic to hide it, and Andrei found it by chance.”

Andrei nodded.

“I didn’t want to go back to the festival, I felt really strongly that we would miss it if we did. And I really didn’t think we had looked in the back enough, so I ran there, and I hide behind the wall from Yordana. And boom! The crack into the tunnel appeared in front of me!”

Vlad nodded, and Yordana couldn’t see his face but she was sure he was smiling with excitement. Normal people would have been in more shock, but Vladimir had experienced more strange things in his life, and his excitement mostly came from his thrill that this story that he had known since he was a child was real.

Yordana truthfully was starting to feel the shock of what had happened, and her mind was getting more and more tired as Vlad asked more questions.

“What was the Wizard like?”

“He was super nice and cool! He did magic with a snap of his fingers or a flick of his wrist, and even gave me this bandages that will heal my cuts faster!”

Yordana yawned as Andrei answered Vlad, she rolled the stem of the camellia flower against the palm of her left hand with the fingers of her right. Her tired brain decided it was important to add-

“He was nice, but he craves attention. Kind of reminded me of a cat if I’m going to be truthful.”

Andrei turned and looked at her and scrunched up his nose.

“A cat? The Wizards cooler than a cat! Unless you’re talking like that big mountain cat that climbs trees and has spots and lives in the snow-”

“A snow leopard.” Vlad provided, and Andrei nodded like he always knew that.

“Yeah, a snow leopard! The Wizard is cool like a snow leopard!”

Yordana shrugged.

“No, I was talking more like a house cat that was abandoned and then found new owners, and he tries to act like it doesn’t want their affection but really he does.”

Andrei looked at her strangely, and Vlad glanced curiously over his shoulder at her.

“Why do you think that Dana?” Andrei inquired.

Yordana shrugged again, shifting in her seat and tucking her legs beneath her.

“That’s just what I noticed when I talked to him while you were playing with the animals, he seemed to crave attention.”

Vlad turned around and looked at her in astonishment.

“You were alone with him?! I thought you went with Andrei to play with the animals, that’s how Andrei phrased it!”

She shook her head no.

“No, he put bandages on Andrei’s knees, then Andrei went off to find the animals and Laurence bandaged my cheek.”

They pulled to a stop in front of their house, and the stable boy ran out of his small cabin and started unhooking the horses.

Vladimir and Andrei both looked at her weirdly.

“Whose Laurence? Is he a friend of the Wizard’s I didn’t meet?” Andrei asked curiously, and Yordana’s mouth formed an O as she realized she hadn’t told them Laurence’s name.

“Oh no, Laurence is the Wizard. He doesn’t like being called the Wizard, so I told him my name and got his in return. He treats his guests as well as they treat him you know.” Yordana yawned and climbed off the carriage, her vision was getting blurry from how tired she was.

“No, I didn’t know that. You and him sure talked about a lot of stuff while I was gone huh?” She heard Andrei’s voice faintly, and she stopped with her hand on the doorknob.

“We didn’t talk that much, we were to close together for that. He told me his name before giving me this flower and saying we can visit again.” Yawning again, Yordana waved them goodnight and walked inside and into her room. She paused before crawling into bed, and looked at the white camellia still resting in her hand. Taking the roses Conrad had given her out of the vase on the nightstand, Yordana placed the single, white, faintly glowing camellia into the vase besides her pillow. Undressing sluggishly, Yordana climbed into bed and pulled the covers around her and stared at the glowing flower. A smile and a warm feeling seemed to seep into her, and memories of Laurence swarmed into her mind and drifted her off into a pleasant dreamless sleep.

Back outside, when Yordana closed the door behind her, Vlad and Andrei shared a look of shock and uncertainty.

“Did the Wizard tell you his name?” Andrei shook his head. Vlad sighed. “It was worth asking… How long were they alone together do you reckon?” Andrei thought for a moment, then shrugged.  
“I’m not sure, I think.... maybe thirty to forty minutes.”

They were silent, and Vlad got off the carriage and hefted Andrei off. As Andrei’s feet touched the ground, he looked up at Vlad.

“Do you think the Wizard gave Yordana the flower and told her we could come back because he likes her? Mrs. Frosch said once that people who like someone give them gifts like flowers and other hints they like them. I think telling someone they can come back is a hint, what do you think.”

Vlad ran his hands through his hair, and thought for a moment.

“I think…” Andrei grew eager, if the Wizard liked Yordana then maybe they’ll get married, and then Andrei could go to the mansion and see magic whenever he wanted! Vlad rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and Andrei tapped his fingers in wait.

“I think it’s time for bed. We’ll talk with Yordana about her possible suitor in the morning, alright?” Andrei felt supremely disappointed in Vlad’s answer, but he was tired, so he nodded glumly. He did make Vlad carry him inside and help him get ready for bed. Andrei couldn’t help but feel a little giddy when they walked past Yordana’s room and saw a faint light coming through the cracks. He wondered if this Laurence would give brothers in law free magic wishes? Andrei hoped so, he had a lot of wishes he wanted fulfilled.

After tucking Andrei into bed, Vlad went into his own room and got undressed and into nightclothes. He didn’t go to bed however, instead, he went to the wall of bookshelves and skimmed all five of them until he found his old notebook filled with all the information about the Wizard. He sat on the edge of the bed and read through it, and when he finished a couple minutes later he closed the book slowly and gazed into the low burning light of the lamp and thought.

‘The man who lost his wife to the wizard said he was old, thin haired, and wise, but Yordana described him as young, full haired, and cocky….’

“Who exactly did they meet in the mansion, if it was not the wizard from the stories?”

\---  
Yordana was awoken by Andrei slamming her door open and jumping onto her bed.

She sat up in panic, as Andrei was shouting her name over and over again.

“What what?!? What’s happened what do you need?!” Andrei stopped shouting and jumping and looked at Yordana with distress in his eyes.

“I forgot to get my wish from the Wizard!”  
Oh, Yordana laid back down and sighed, her eyes ached from the sudden harsh light streaming in from her open curtain that she forgot to close the night before.

“That’s sad Andrei, next time we see him we’ll ask if he’ll grant you a wish.”

Andrei wrung his hands anxiously.

“Do you think that he will? What if I didn’t ask soon enough and I’ve lost my chance!”

Yordana threw her arm over her eyes and groaned.

“I don’t know Andrei! Laurence might or he might no, Vlad would know better then me!”

Andrei seemed to realize she wasn’t in the mood to comfort him, so he scrambled off the bed.

“Oh, I woke you up sorry Dana! I’ll let you go back to sleep for a bit longer then I’ll wake you up, we have to go the market today and buy some more eggs!”

And then Andrei ran out, thankfully closing the door behind him.

  
Yordana rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but Andrei’s shouting had woken her up permanently.

So Yordana sat up and got dressed and ready for the day. While brushing out her long hair before putting it in her usual high ponytail, the camellia flowers reflection in the mirror caught her eye. She paused for a moment and stared at it, it was a beautiful flower, and was as lively as it was the night before. The water in the vase was rather dirty though, and after fixing her hair she picked it up carefully and walked through the hallway and into the kitchen.

Vlad and Andrei were already there, sitting across from each other at the round table. Andrei was shoveling food into his mouth almost as fast as he was talking, and Vlad was reading some paperwork he needed to finish, nodding occasionally to let Andrei know he was listening.

They both looked up as Yordana walked in,  
both of their eyes focusing on the glass vase she was carrying.

“Good morning!” Yordana gave them a chipper greeting, smiling as she walked past them to the pump.

“Morning Dana! Are you going to keep that flower?” Andrei asked eagerly, turning in his seat to watch her refill the vase with fresh water.

Nodding, Yordana stood up with the vase and tucked it safely into her arms.

“Yes, I don’t see why I shouldn’t, it’s a beautiful flower after all, and it would be a crime to let it wither away!”

Andrei shot Vlad an interesting look, and Vlad gave him a “don’t say anything” one in return. Yordana was going to ask what that was all about, but Andrei spoke before she could.

“Anyway, I want to see the wizard again soon!”

Yordana blinked, she hadn’t thought of seeing Laurence again so soon, but the thought wasn’t un-likable.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing him again either.” Yordana confessed to her brothers, Andrei beamed at her, but Vlad didn’t look as happy.

He set down his paperwork and frowned.

“I don’t know about that Andrei, we can’t go whenever we want, remember?”

Oh, yes. The mansion was on the mayors property, and they would need his little sister Natalia to go with them, or else they would be trespassing.

Yordana had forgotten and Andrei had to. They both grew thoughtful, with Yordana leaning against a counter, clutching the vase to her. Andrei bit his lip.

“So… we just need to ask her then, and she said she’d consider taking us, right?”

Vlad sighed, and Yordana shook her head. It wasn’t going to be that easy.

“Well, I don’t think it will be that simple Andrei. She’s related to the mayor, and the mayor…. Doesn’t like us very much, remember?”

Andrei laid his hands out on the table and looked desperately at his older siblings.

“But…” he couldn’t think of a good counter argument. The mayor did openly dislike them, and his sister would definitely have heard of it.

Someone knocked on the door, and Vlad stood up to get it, talking to Andrei over his shoulder as he did so.

“And on top of that, the chance of us seeing her again before she has to go back to help her sister is very low. She’s only visiting, and has no reason to-“

Vlad stopped talking as soon as he opened the door. Andrei brightened up immediately, and Yordana’s mouth fell open.

Natalia was standing in their doorway, holding a stack of plates in her hands and an annoyed expression in her face.

“I want to see this wizard for myself.”  
Natalia declared, her blonde hair blowing in the wind as she shoving the plates into Vlad’s hands and stepped inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a connecting chapter so not a lot of exciting stuff happens.... oh! Except for the hints of RomBela, which is always exciting!

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this chapter during nighttime so if you find any mistakes please tell me!


End file.
